Having completed the refit, and launched Tarka at Portland, I am currently doing last minute jobs before the rig goes up and we can get started with sea trials before the UK trip.
Around Great Britain and Ireland Non-Stop
Thus begins the first major passage: This will be an anticlockwise non-stop circumnavigation of Great Britain and Ireland planned for Summer 2026. I chose this route as a means to take my first steps in long distance solo sailing, while staying within a rough boundary of 200nm to the nearest safe haven. Most of the route however, is within 90nm of the shore, much of which is home turf. My current feeling is to make the passage anticlockwise as this will hopefully facilitate a downwind leg up the English Channel, though the weather at the time will of course the determining factor.
From Portland, I’ll make my way up the Channel, past Dover and the Thames Estuary, and then push offshore into the North Sea. From there it’s a left at Shetland, another at Rockall (an uninhabited Islet 160nm west of St. Kilda), followed by Fastnet Rock, Bishop Rock, and back up towards Portland.
This route is 2000nm and is predicted to take between 20 (100nm a day) and 30 days (67nm a day), (Hopefully closer to 20).
Around the Atlantic
(Stay tuned…)
